RFK assassin stabbed in prison, reigniting conspiracy theories

He’s been in prison for more than 50 years for the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Now’s Sirhan Sirhan is hospitalized after being stabbed by a fellow inmate at a San Diego prison Friday afternoon.

A statement from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation explained what happened at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego.

“Officers responded quickly, and found an inmate with stab wound injuries. He was transported to an outside hospital for medical care, and is currently in stable condition,” the statement said.

The statement didn’t specifically name Sirhan.

But a government source with direct knowledge leaked confirmation to the media, speaking under the condition of anonymity because of prison privacy regulations.

According to corrections officials, the attacker was identified and separated from the rest of the prison population pending an investigation.

Sirhan, now 75, was convicted of shooting Kennedy shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968. He did it immediately after the New York senator had declared victory in the previous day’s California Democratic presidential primary.

Moments after Kennedy delivered his victory speech to cheering supporters at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel, he decided to walk through the hotel kitchen and stopped to shake hands with a busboy who had delivered food to his room the day before.

That’s when he was shot in the head – he died the next day.

Originally, Sirhan was sentenced to death… but that sentenced was reduced to life in prison when California briefly outlawed capital punishment.

He’s been denied parole several times.

During that shooting, five other people were wounded. Los Angeles Rams football great Rosey Grier, Olympic champion Rafer Johnson and others were credited with wrestling the murder weapon away.

In the years since, Sirhan has claimed to have no recollection of the shooting or his initial confession.

Because he’s such a high-profile prisoner, Sirhan had once been kept in a protective housing unit at Corcoran State Prison in Northern California.

He was moved to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility after he told authorities he would prefer being housed with the general prison population.

Almost immediately, people took to social media to make correlations between the Sirhan case and the Epstein case – which, to anyone but conspiracy theorists, seem to have absolutely no tie.

Many referenced the parole board hearing back in 2011, when a lawyer for Sirhan Sirhan presented “new evidence” suggesting that he did not act alone, was potentially brain washed and cannot remember anything about the 43-year-old shooting.

“There is no question he was hypno-programmed,” lawyer William F. Pepper told ABCNews.com. “He was set up. He was used. He was manipulated.”

The attorney took a page from the conspiracies surrounding the assassination of Kennedy’s brother President John F. Kennedy. With that in mind, he suggested there was a second gunman who fatally shot RFK in the kitchen of a Los Angeles hotel.

He argued unsuccessfully to the parole board that Sirhan was “hypno-programmed,” essentially brainwashed to kill Kennedy and his memories were then erased.

“Ten independent witnesses say Sirhan was always in front of Bobby, never behind him,” said Pepper, “but the autopsy says Bobby was shot at close range from behind the right ear.”

According to his attorney in that hearing, Sirhan is “remorseful” for his role in the 1968 assassination of Kennedy, but the gunman “does not remember anything about the shooting.”

It’s worth pointing out that at his trial, Sirhan confessed to the crime and declared he had committed it “with 20 years of malice aforethought.”

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